Veterans Affairs 'scandals' Are As Old As The Agency

WE BROKE IT DECADES AGO!!! And by doing so any problems in a much needed growth agency, especially with them poser patriotism flag wavin wars we don't pay for, are compounded and while grossly under funded brings on more problems!!

By the way, Congress is Us and especially the 99% served!!

Yet today’s Congress is “shocked and shocked”

"If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too — not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013

June 9, 2014 - The Veterans Affairs “scandal” story is fading from the news, as VA scandal stories always do. That is the scandal.

In a previous post, I talked about Congress’ culpability. For years, Congress has demanded that the VA expand its mission and services but has not provided the money to do it properly. And now Congress is outraged.

The truth is the government has been making a mess of serving veterans since the Veteran’s Bureau was commissioned in 1921. From the research I’ve done, there seem to be many complications that have endured for decades and are immune to repair.

Veterans have difficult health problems -- chronic conditions and complex mental health issues -- and addressing those issues has gotten even harder as soldiers survive catastrophic wounds that would have been fatal until recently.

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And this is just a highlight reel.

The bottom line is that Congress, the press, the presidents and we the people have had countless opportunities to turn outrage into action. Sometimes, the scandal cycle led to important reforms, if never a transformation of the VA.

“Throughout its history, the VA’s very public failures have shaped its development as profoundly as its successes,” Moore wrote in The Washington Post. “If there is any silver lining to our current outrage, it is that in the past, acts of negligence or corruption have led to dramatic improvements in the care veterans receive.” read more>>>

“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

And in the Shinseki VA they were not only trying to fix what was ignored, by those served, in the agency, they also started addressing the long long............. ignored issues of previous wars especially. Those few within saw their chance to use politics and their own greed, politics as to the Gen who had a target on him since speaking Military Truth and the bushco firing him!!!

There's 'whistleblowers' And then 'political whistleblowers', and in the grossly under funded for decades VA this is reading more like that latter along with greed!!

Sen. Bernie Sanders told Conservatives: “If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, than don’t go war. These people are bearing the brunt of what war is about, We have a moral obligation to support them.” February, 26th, 2014